Noting that 15 people have killed themselves behind bars in less than 30 months, U.S. Department of Justice officials said Friday that Los Angeles County maintains deficient mental-health services, inadequate supervision and deplorable conditions in its county jails, violating the constitutional rights of inmates.

The department’s assessment of the county jails — detailed in a June 4 letter to the county — revealed widespread lapses in basic supervision of at-risk prisoners, inadequate mental health care for prisoners with clear needs, deplorable environmental conditions and a suicide review process that included inaccurate information to prevent deaths.

The Sheriff’s Department responded with a statement Friday that said it was disappointed with the report because the agency had made significant improvements since 1997.

“Every suicide and attempted suicide is of great concern to us,” the statement said. “Both agencies are and have been fully committed to prevention efforts. We are disappointed that (Friday’s) report fails to fully recognize the additional progress made over the last year and a half to improve mental health services.”

Following inspections in March and June of 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice report concluded:

• The county failed to address a dramatic increase in suicides and suicide attempts in the jails. Four completed suicides occurred in 2012, but the number jumped to 10 in 2013, with another one in January 2014. Additionally, jails reported 366 suicide “incidents” in 2013, a 20 percent increase.

• Forty-four percent of inmates who harmed themselves were housed in mental health facilities at the time, indicating a lack of adequate supervision, including lapses in safety checks.

• Prisoners with mental illness are housed in dimly lit, vermin-infested, noisy, unsanitary, cramped and crowded conditions that might contribute to their mental distress. The problems were most acute at the Men’s Central Jail, but also exist at the Century Regional Detention Facility and some areas of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility.

“Often suicide precautions are punitive in nature, even depriving some prisoners of a mattress to sleep on,” the report said.

• Despite the increases in suicides, jail command staff persistently failed to review and appraise its practices and staffing.

“Fifteen suicides in 25 months produced almost no discernible change in the jails’ custodial practices,” the report said. “Critical incident reviews related to suicides are replete with inaccurate and incomplete information and do not identify or seek to remedy systemic problems.”

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The inspections occurred as part of the Department of Justice’s 2002 memorandum of agreement with the county to resolve poor conditions in its jails. The Los Angeles County jail system houses about 19,000 inmates in seven facilities.

Federal officials acknowledged the county is dealing with a “rapid increase in the number of prisoners who are seriously mentally ill” and has taken steps to expand diversion programs to provide community supervision and treatment.

The Sheriff’s Department’s statement Friday said the agency and the mental health department remained committed to “protecting the constitutional rights of all inmates housed in the Los Angeles County jail system by providing high-quality mental health care.”

The department said it had made significant improvements in mental health care since 1997 to comply with reforms ordered by the Department of Justice.

“The report also mischaracterizes and significantly understates the incredible efforts made to improve our suicide prevention practices,” the statement said.

L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky issued a statement saying the findings raise “serious issues that cry out for the county to move aggressively now toward developing and implementing a diversion program that will treat mentally ill inmates in an environment far more conducive to success than the ailing county lockup.”

In May, the Board of Supervisors approved a $2 billion proposal to replace the Men’s Central Jail and build a new jail for women. The panel also approved a study to explore ways to divert mentally ill offenders from jails to other programs.

The county jail system has about 3,000 mentally ill inmates.

“I feel certain the DOJ will not wait 10 years for us to erect a new $2 billion jail, despite its promise of more humane and intensive treatment for the county’s thousands of mentally ill inmates,” Yaroslavsky said. “So it is crucial that the board revisit the jail construction issue sooner rather than later — and I believe the Justice Department’s letter will incentivize the board to do precisely that.”